I have a really big family, and pretty much all my work is about my brothers and sisters. I'm the youngest of eight - my mom had seven kids in seven years, and then she had me 11 years later - so I was basically raised by all these teenagers.

When I moved to New York, I was still in the closet.

I put all of my time into art because I couldn't go back to Jersey and work at Starbucks.

A lot of people, even my parents, thought, "Art school, I don't know. We'll support you but the success rate for artists is really slim."

The cool part about New York is that you can do that. You can talk to all the people you admire.

A lot of artists need structure.

I just remember how excited I was to have a boyfriend and be in love and to document it.